If McCain Wins...

[mishalak]

I'm staying right here. If taxes go up, if taxes go down, if Republicans are elected or Democrats I'm still staying. If the river dries up, if the economy is crap, if there is plutonium in the reservoirs, Colorado is still my home. If an asteroid the size of a small stadium is headed right for the city, I'm staying because Denver is where I live and going anywhere else would be mere survival rather than living.

The rest of you may all decide to decamp for Canada and abandon America to her fate, but I cannot live anywhere else but Colorado. So as long as Colorado is in the Union I shall be a part of it too and as my ancestors before me I shall live, work, die, and stay here forever.

(Yes this is partially in response to someone muttering about going to another country if a Republican wins the White House this time around.)

Comments

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Most folks just whine. I've only known two people (personally) who actually stood up and moved.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Even if I wanted to I could not move. I don't have the skills to do it. I don't have the mentality to survive it. I'm very happy I moved back to Colorado. I would have died in San Francisco.

[k6rfm.livejournal.com]

Hey, we liked having your around when you were in the Bay Area. But I understand the pull of home. And I survived Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Bush; I'll get through McCain if it comes to that (but I'm glad I'm too old to be drafted and have no sons.)

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I liked the bay area, but it was killing me by inches. I'm like one of those fussy plants that hates transplant stress and are as likely to die as take.

[kaffy_r]

Good for you. Like the song says - "I am a patriot, and I love my country, because my country is all I know." (It isn't all we know, or have, of course, but songwriters do get a little room for artistically exuberant license.)

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Other people can move. I don't think I can. If I moved somewhere else to escape I probably would die anyway in a year or two.

[kaffy_r]

That's indeed a testimony to how deep your feelings are for the country. I hope that the question never even needs to be considered.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Eh, it's all posturing. I've heard that in 2000, 2004, and now. Nobody ever actually moves. And let's face it, if liberals had actually been trying to leave the country Rove would've provided free buses and U-Hauls to speed them on their way.

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

What that person just said? I was gonna say that.

So, ah... how's it going?

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I think "it's _all_ posturing" would be slightly misleading. Over the c. 65 years I've been aware of such things, I've been unhappy and disgusted about various things the people who run our country did, but it's only within the past few years/decade that I've _seriously_ considered becoming a citizen of some country that now has Ideals & practices closer to those the United States used to have. I won't actually take such a serious step, of course -- the frailties of advanced age include a weakening of courage -- but I expect it will be almost as difficult to adjust to living in an alien country when it's the spirit and nature of the country that has changed as it would be to change my geographic location.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Having become older and wiser through painful experience I doubt I would survive moving to another country. This isn't the way all people are, but I was not far from breaking when I left San Francisco.

[bureinato.livejournal.com]

And here I was going to stay put because I'm too lazy to pack my crap.

[ajournalguy.livejournal.com]

I more or less agree, except that I don’t care for Colorado, I have to be near the ocean. Still, I might reconsider if Mitt Romney ended up as McCain’s running mate. That man is slimy and evil and having him anywhere near the big seat would keep me from sleeping nights.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

It isn't for everyone. Just me. Because I cannot live anywhere else. Other people transplant easier. I would die if I had to live elsewhere.

[doubt72.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm thinking it's possible I might leave the country whoever wins (still contemplating that), but given that I'm also most likely going to buy a house before I go, my departure will no doubt be temporary. And we're not talking Canada, anyway, but something a whole lot farther. And there's no danger of me dropping my citizenship.

But for an asteroid? I'd move. Plus, thinking about grad school, and for stuff I'm interested in, I'd pretty much have to leave Colorado, alas.

But then, for me, nothing has quite gelled into being an irreplaceable "home," although I do have a bit of nostalgia about a couple places, I'm not so tied down to anywhere.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I'm just not the sort of person who transplants easily. I would have been one of those New Orleans people who stayed and died because they were going to die with their city. Or who went away and came back to die of a broken heart when the city did not come back.

[doubt72.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's understandable. I, on the other hand, have never really put down roots anywhere. I don't have any family left to speak of (just a brother I don't generally get along with, and cousins and such that I've never bonded with too closely), so all things being equal (which they aren't, of course -- there are reasons I didn't stay in Houston or Kansas City or Colorado Springs), it doesn't matter where I live.

Of course, that's when we're talking about the U.S. -- moving to another country is another question entirely. I'm not really sure how I'd respond to that, if I even do it. That's a bit more... Interesting.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I think what made the difference in my make up is the fact that I lived for 17 years in the same house and the majority of the time I lived elsewhere is before I can remember. I did not even go to college out of state and frequently went home on weekends.